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Author's Craft Argument: House Rules By Jodi Picoult

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Author’s Craft Argument How Authors use Similes in their Writing There are many ways an author can use different kinds of craft moves. In the book House Rules by Jodi Picoult, similes are often used when the main character, Jacob, is trying to connect with the world around him or explain how he is feeling. Jacob is a young man with Asperger’s syndrome. Although he may not be able to connect very well with others on a social scale, he is very intelligent when it comes to figuring out a criminal mystery. After Jacob’s tutorer is found dead, all signs lead to him. Jodi Picoult emphasized the use of similes to show how Jacob, a teen living with Asperger's syndrome connects with and understands life around him. The author uses similes in many …show more content…

An example of this from the text is, “Dogs are like the kids in school I can not stand: the ones who hang around and then leave when they realize they are not getting what they want or need from the conversation.” This proves that a simile can help the reader understand how Jacob’s Aspergers can affect him on a social scale. When the author compares the kids at Jacob’s school to a dog it shows that Jacob doesn’t have very strong connections with other students because like a dog, people don’t like to hang around Jacob when he can’t offer what they are looking for. This simile also helps the viewer to become more aware on how Asperger’s Syndrome affects an individual …show more content…

An example from the text is “For the past three days, I’ve been doing better: I’m taking all my supplements again and my shots, and it hasn’t felt quite as much as if I’m constantly swimming in a bubble of water that makes it hard to understand what people say or to focus on them.” This demonstrates that the author wants us to connect with the situation Jacob is in with one of our own because Jacob describes how he has been doing and connects it to being under water. Most people know that when you are underwater you can’t really hear or see what is going on around you. This simile makes it really easy to connect with the way Jacob is feeling and it helps the reader understand what life is like for him with Asperger's. While some people argue that this simile was not meant to help the reader connect with Jacob and his life with Aspergers but rather as a way to show how Jacob is feeling, but, clearly the author wants the reader to connect this situations to one of their own because otherwise Jodi Picoult wouldn’t of used a simile to connect Jacob’s current state to something that so many people have experienced and can connect with. In the book House Rules similes are used when the main character Jacob, a teen with Asperger's syndrome tries to make connections with the world around him. Similes are used throughout the book

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